For five years, the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix took place on a street circuit in the city of Valencia. In 2012, the city promptly canceled its contract with F1, and the track was abandoned. But it’s still kind of there.
The story of the Valencia F1 track is one of corruption and graft, according to a video by Matt Amys. The track was originally supposed to be on the F1 calendar for seven years, but the organizers spent so much in the first five that the last two Grands Prix (which were supposed to take place in 2013 and 2014) never occurred.
Allegedly, one of the reasons that the circuit ran out of money for the last two years was that the people in charge kept spending money on false contracts and bribery in order to line their own pockets. Naturally, lawsuits followed, and several people associated with the event have faced legal consequences.
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But an F1 circuit is a very large thing, and the grounds that made up the old Valencia street circuit amount to 300,000 square meters (3,229,173 square-feet) of land. Although almost anything that is valuable has been stripped from the location, some parts of the track remain a decade later.
As you can see in the video below, the asphalt is still there, of course, as are some concrete barriers, curbs, astroturf, and painted lines. Best of all, although you can’t drive on the circuit, it is open to the public, so you can walk along the old track, albeit some sections are less obviously a circuit than others now.
Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story. The grounds are now owned by an investment group, which is working with the Valencia city hall, and both are looking to redevelop the land into something more usable.
Although no contracts have been tendered yet, the track is being torn down more and more to prepare it for its next useful life. That means that if you want to see what’s left of the old circuit, you’ll likely have to get there pretty quickly.